Belarus citizen suspected of espionage claims being tortured by Ukraine Security Service


A citizen of Belarus, who was detained in Ukraine on suspicion of spying, says that he incriminated himself under torture.

Yury, 32, states that he has never worked in the Belarusian KGB or collected secret information for Russia, tut.by reports. At the moment, he is jailed in the Ukrainian town of Chernihiv.

In his letter to the Belarusian embassy, Yury says he was arrested when he was returning to Belarus. Officers of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) stopped him at the border crossing point Novi Yarylovychi on June 16, 2017.

“They tried to make me confess to a crime against Ukraine, namely espionage, and to attempts to feed someone with secret information. However I have never committed anything like that.

They also said that if I did not confess, they would lock me up for a long time, and promised the release from criminal prosecution in case of my confession. They also told me that my phone had secret files which I was about to send to foreign intelligence services. However, I did not have the files in question, I did not commit any crime, I did not cooperate with intelligence services of a foreign country. They thought I was working for the Belarusian KGB or the Russian FSB. I denied everything, because I am not guilty. I refused to incriminate myself,” Yury said.

According to the man, a bit later he was brought to some protected facility. There SBU officers got out of the car; three masked and armed men handcuffed him pulled a rag on his head, put him into another car and drove away in an unknown direction, Yury said. He claims that he was interrogated, beaten and threatened with death during the drive.

The man was taken to the detention centre in Chernihiv. Three days later they decided to move him to the SBU detention centre in Kyiv. On the way there, he was tortured again, which was unbearable, and the Belarusian decided to incriminate himself, he states.

“They were filming my confession on the phone. They had to make several takes, because I stumbled over words. Then I was ordered to confirm all this to investigators, and they promised to ‘come and talk’ to me if I failed to do that,” Yury says in a letter.

According to the arrestee, since he was jailed in Kyiv, investigators have summoned him only once – on 22 June. During the interrogation, the SBU offered him to bear false witness against another Belarusian citizen – some Alyaksandr Palcheuski, whom Yury is not acquainted to. They wanted him to confess to collecting secret information and conveying it to Palcheuski. In return, they promised to drop all charges, Yury claims.

“I refused to do that. I did not commit any crime against Ukraine, I am not a spy, I do not work either for Belarus’ security service or that of any other country,” he added.

КА, belsat.eu, following TUT.BY

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